What breed are we? (dumped chooks and others)

County Lodge · **Posted:** Tue Mar 18, 2008 10:15 am

greenaus wrote:

But, still no-one has dared give a name to the breed of my black (and the partridge) bantams. They're the mothers of those eight black chickens with the mother hen. I already know pretty much what their father is, so it would be neat to know what their mothers are.

The little black one almost look like and australorp bantam and a bit of leghorn. What colour are her eyes. Partridge could have brown leghorn in her. The shape is a bit leghornish. :-?

greenaus · **Posted:** Tue Mar 18, 2008 2:00 pm

County Lodge wrote:

The little black one almost look like an australorp bantam and a bit of leghorn. What colour are her eyes. Partridge could have brown leghorn in her. The shape is a bit leghornish. :-?

I took a close up of a black one's head and included it in this picture.

That's the one that seems to spend half her day sitting in the nesting box. That's why one of the photos is of her in the nesting box and the other is of me holding her after lifting her out (well, she tried to get away, I dragged her out kicking and squawking).

I also took a couple of photos of the one with a few gold neck feathers. She is missing feathers on the front of her neck, but I don't know why.

Taking a photo of the partridge (so I did name the colour correctly, huh?) was not so easy. I may have to go in and take her out to get good photos. I think she is embarrassed about her appearance. :oops:

With the minimal experience I have and since I have 10-11 week old standard Australorps, I was beginning to think the black bantams looked a bit like the Australorp chickens. Well, actually, it was around the other way. Looking at the size of the chickens, they are beginning to look like the bantams.

Though, as I said, I still have heaps to learn and lots of chooks to see. To me, unless they look really different, all plump black chooks are Australorps. ;-)

County Lodge · **Posted:** Tue Mar 18, 2008 3:34 pm

Her eyes are the wrong colour though. I thought they might be black. Therefore probably black commercial cross.

greenaus · **Posted:** Wed Mar 19, 2008 1:43 am

County Lodge wrote:

Her eyes are the wrong colour though. I thought they might be black. Therefore probably black commercial cross.

What if I slap her around a bit?

Will that give her black eyes? [smilie=new_silly.gif]

Thanks for your help. So, only the one with the black eyes is likely an Australorp.

I'm sure at least one of the black ones has black eyes. Not only that, but I took a little more notice on Tuesday and one (or two) has a bigger, lower set body.

Anyway, "possible bantam Australorp X' sounds alright to me.

It might also help to explain why two of them (yes, two now) spent the whole afternoon sitting in the nesting box while everyone else was out feed ranging.

Do you reckon they may be about to go broody? Or, are they just reserving their bed hours too early?

pjh · **Posted:** Wed Mar 19, 2008 5:05 am

greenaus wrote:

That's the one that seems to spend half her day sitting in the nesting box. That's why one of the photos is of her in the nesting box and the other is of me holding her after lifting her out (well, she tried to get away, I dragged her out kicking and squawking).
Do you reckon they may be about to go broody? Or, are they just reserving their bed hours too early?

;-)

sounds to me as if she is already broody :lol:

does she make different noises when you disturb her ? broodie language is different to the other chooks it changes, bit hard to discribe----but they get a real igdignant angry growly sound when you disturb them-----and they make a different noise and fluff up if a roo approaches them---cheers pam

greenaus · **Posted:** Thu Mar 20, 2008 3:36 am

pjh wrote:

sounds to me as if she is already broody :lol:

does she make different noises when you disturb her ? broodie language is different to the other chooks it changes, bit hard to discribe----but they get a real igdignant angry growly sound when you disturb them-----and they make a different noise and fluff up if a roo approaches them---cheers pam

'No" to all questions basically.

The roo is too busy to go near them, so I don't notice.

I had a busy day Wednesday so didn't check down there much (no-one even free-ranged Wednesday). The two times I opened the nesting box, they just sat there. No grumpy reactions though.

Oh, hang on, I just remembered something. I took an egg from another nest and slipped it under the lead potential broody (the other one is the support potential broody), closed the box and reopened in 20 seconds, she was still there....not that I was extremely surprised. Though, up until then, they would leave the nesting box when I opened and closed it.

Having already put that egg under her, it is probably now too late to take it back. I'll end up doing a switch and swap like you tell us about. If I can be sure she is broody and will stay broody, I'm very seriously considering giving her eggs or chicks from the incubator. They hatch in ~1 day and ~11 days. A maximum of 6 are hatching today or tomorrow (or the day after). A maximum of 16 in the next batch. I'd rather give the small batch to the support potential broody if she will take them and give the bigger batch to the one that appears more committed.

I'll have to build more pens.

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